The Dragon Can't Dance: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Dragon Can't Dance" is a novel that delves into the complexities of identity, community, and the struggles of its characters against socio-economic constraints in Trinidad. Central to the narrative is Aldrick Prospect, a thirty-one-year-old man who dedicates himself to his role as the dragon in the Trinidad Carnival, which symbolizes his connection to ancestral strength and his community’s fight against oppression. Despite feeling a desire for love and a normal life with Sylvia, a vibrant seventeen-year-old girl facing her own challenges in a harsh environment, Aldrick chooses emotional isolation, leading to his eventual alienation.
Other significant characters include Belasco "Fisheye" John, who grapples with violence and seeks belonging within a steel band; Miss Cleothilda Alvarez, a manipulative figure who exerts control over her neighbors while masking her insecurities; and Samuel "Philo" Sampson, a successful singer torn between his rise in popularity and the rejection of his past friends. The narrative also introduces Boya Pariag, an East Indian entrepreneur striving for acceptance, and his wife Dolly, who finds solace in financial security despite societal prejudices. As the characters navigate their intertwined lives, the story addresses themes of ambition, social dynamics, and the quest for identity amidst the vibrant backdrop of Trinidad's Carnival.
The Dragon Can't Dance: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Earl Lovelace
First published: 1979
Genre: Novel
Locale: Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
Plot: Social
Time: Early 1960'2–1971
Aldrick Prospect, a thirty-one-year-old man who has never had a regular job and whose only concern throughout the year is the creation of a new costume for his perennial role as dragon during the Trinidad Carnival. Seeing himself as embodying the power of ancestral African warriors and his dispossessed community's potential for rebellion against its oppressors, he deliberately cuts himself off from ordinary ambitions—for love, possessions, a home—to devote himself to the partly mystical and priestly role through which he also asserts his own identity and humanity. He feels the impulse to love and protect Sylvia, but when she offers herself to him, he chooses, despite feelings of guilt, to maintain the emotional isolation and austerity that his role dictates. He gradually becomes alienated from most of his neighbors and is unwilling to act as guardian of the community code or to continue his role as dragon. He acts out his rebellion by scorning his neighbors, betraying his successful friend Philo, and taking part in a foolhardy hijacking of a police vehicle. Released after five years in prison, changed but undefeated, he seeks out Sylvia. Learning of her impending marriage to Guy, he leaves the hill.
Sylvia, a seventeen-year-old girl with special qualities of vitality, beauty, fragility, and desirability. The women of the Calvary Hill slum hope that she can miraculously escape the inevitable and common destiny of sexual exploitation, early pregnancy, and defeat and that her youth and promise will not be destroyed. Unable to establish a relationship with Aldrick based on love and the hope for an ordinary life, Sylvia faces the reality of her fatherless family's poverty and gives herself to Guy in return for gifts, rent, and eventually a place of her own. Seven years later, on the eve of the wedding that will formalize and secure her relationship with Guy, she goes in search of Aldrick.
Belasco “Fisheye” John, a tall and powerfully built man with bulging eyes. He is a “bad John,” indulging in violence to vent his bubbling rage. In his mid-thirties, he joins the Calvary Hill steel band more as a fighter than as a musician. Having found a purpose in life and a sense of pride and belonging, he is able to express a humanity that had been hidden. Unable to accept the end of the steel-band wars, he is expelled from the band, returns to his antisocial ways, and is sentenced to seven years in prison for leading an attack on the police.
Miss Cleothilda Alvarez, an aging mulatto who, at Carnival, plays Queen of the Calvary Hill Carnival band. She is a parlor owner and former beauty queen. By virtue of her color, looks, and money, and the credit she extends to her customers, she exercises a condescending and manipulative control over her resentful but compliant neighbors. Gossipy and vindictive, she is superficially transformed at Carnival time into a generous advocate of unity and brotherhood. Forever coquettish, she scorns Philo, her black would-be lover; she loses her superior status when, after many years, she finally accepts him.
Samuel “Philo” Sampson, a forty-two-year-old singer and friend of Aldrick. A pleasant, smiling, boyish man, he becomes affluent when he turns from calypsos of social protest to popular smut. Wanting old friends to understand that he is still one of them, he is confused and hurt when his generosity is rejected.
Boya Pariag, a budding entrepreneur of East Indian descent, a newcomer to Calvary Hill. Shy, introspective, and with a desperate need to belong, he is excluded by his Creole neighbors. Hard work brings him financial success but not, as he had hoped, his neighbors' appreciation of his true self.
Dolly, Pariag's wife through an arranged marriage. She is un-complaining, patient, and understanding, seeing financial success as protection against prejudice.
Miss Olive, Sylvia's mother. Slow, stout, and six feet tall, she takes in washing to support her seven children. Dutifully suffering Miss Cleothilda's demands and pomposity out of pity as much as respect, she has no heart to expose Cleothilda's weakness.
Guy, a middle-aged property owner and rent collector who makes Sylvia his mistress and later plans to marry her.